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8.11.2011

Quittin' Time

Have I told y'all that Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite books and movies?

No?

Well, it's true.

(I also adore the old Carol Burnett skit Went With the Wind, but that's neither here nor there.)

Random lines and movie scenes occasionally pop into my head, for all sorts of reasons, without much heavy recall effort at all on my part, and I always welcome them like old friends.

One scene has been playing through my head over these last few days, and no, it's not ,"I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies, Mizz Scarlett!!"

Although that is true.

But it's a scene from the beginning, right after the opening credits and the scrolling introduction, of the plantation slaves out in the cotton and one of the up-start field hands announces that it's quittin' time.

And Big Sam sets him straight with," I's the foreman, I's the one to say when it's quittin' time on Tara!"

And then promptly turns and yells, "QUITTIN' TIME!"

Then I picture Mammy shaking her head and strongly tsk tsking, "It ain't fittin'...it ain't fittin'. It jes ain't fittin...it ain't fittin'." (that's from much later on in the movie though) (I mix things up in my head, don't you?)

So.

After 25 years in the space shuttle program, 17 of which I have been a part of, Scott's own personal quittin' time has almost arrived. Today is his last somewhat regular day at work and then tomorrow morning he'll do something called "processing out". Along with hundreds of his co-workers.

(Why did I just think of sausage?)

Even though I've known this day was coming for a good long while (like over a year or more), I still find myself pulling a Scarlett.

"I can't think about that now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about it tomorrow."

"After all, tomorrow is another day."

Now only if I had an old cotton plantation called Tara to run home to.